As employed herein, the term “fluid”, unless, otherwise explicitly indicated, is intended to encompass matter which exhibits a fluid or flowable characteristic, including gases and liquids with or without particulate solids in suspension, as well as mixtures thereof.
As employed herein, the term “Coanda nozzle” refers to a nozzle based on the Coanda Effect and includes configurations such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat Nos. 2,052,869 and 3,337,121.
The system of the present invention may be used to propel any of a number of vehicles, including surface vessels, submarines, torpedoes, aircraft, and land vehicles, etc.
The Coanda effect is the tendency of a jet of fluid to follow a wall contour when discharged adjacent to a surface, when that surface curves away from the jet discharge axis. As more fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,052,869, granted Sep. 1, 1936 to Henri Coanda, the substance of which is hereby incorporated by reference, the Coanda effect is apparent when a stream of fluid emerges from a container, through a slot or other aperture, if one of the lips forming the walls of the slot is extended and recedes continuously from the direction of the axis of the slot. Under such conditions, the fluid clings to the extended lip and tends to increase in velocity, producing a reduced pressure region and causing an intake of large quantities of the surrounding fluid. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 3,337,121, granted Aug. 22, 1967, also to Henri Coanda, the contents thereof is hereby incorporated by reference herein, describes a fluid propulsion system based on the Coanda effect.
One goal of the present invention is to produce a high efficient jet propulsion system using existing components. Furthermore, the system of the present invention can be used in a wide variety of applications from light outboard units to heavy inboard installations.
The present invention includes a marine propulsion system comprising: (1) a fuel-filled tank; (2) an air compressor that generates compressed air; an engine that receives fuel from the tank, wherein the air compressor is powered by the engine; and (3) at least one hot gas generator that receives compressed air from the air compressor, the hot gas generator comprising: (a) a combustion chamber having an inlet and an outlet, the compressed gas injected into the combustion chamber at the inlet, the combustion chamber adapted to produce hot gas; (b) an injection nozzle that receives fuel from the tank, the injection nozzle positioned proximate to the inlet of the combustion chamber, the injection nozzle adapted to spray the fuel into the combustion chamber; and (c) an exhaust nozzle positioned at the outlet of the combustion chamber through which the hot gas produced in the combustion chamber is discharged from the hot gas generator.
In order that the invention may be better illustrated, it will now be described in connection with particular embodiments, reference being made to the accompanying drawings. These embodiments are given solely for the purpose of illustration, and they act in no way to limit the scope of the present invention.